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what to feed my picky eater?

Hi I am a mother of 2 kids a 6 year old girl and a 2 year old boy.My girl eats a lot but not a lot of veggies and so is my boy. My daughter eats a little bit of green veggies but not much and my son doesn't want to eat any. I am having a hard time feeding them nutritious food, please if you have any other solutions and suggestion I am all ears. Thanks

Thank you for your question - I know this is a concern that most parents have at some stage.

My first point would be that most children do grow out of this 'fussy stage' and start trying new food and eating a greater variety of food. However, I think you are right to ask this question now and do all you can to help your children get the nutrients they need.

Is your son breastfed? If he is then, even in the third year of life, he can get a lot of nutrients (as well as immunity and many other benefits) from the breastmilk so this would be less of a concern for him.

Instead of focussing on what your children eat each day, try to ensure that they eat all the food groups and nutrients they need over, say, a 3-4 day period. Many children will have one day of just eating meat, another of focussing mostly on carbohydrates and the following snacking on fruit and vegetables. This is perfectly acceptable and may help to take the pressure off both you and them.

I think we also have to be as inventive and creative as possible when helping our children to eat vegetables. I would go for the approach of giving them both vegetables they can see (so they learn that vegetables are a normal, healthy part of meal-times) and hidden vegetables within other food.

For example, you could roast vegetables such as butternut squash, peppers and marrows and then liquidise them and mix them into a tomato sauce for pasta. You could make chickpea burgers or even courgette muffins. There are some excellent innovative meal ideas on the baby led weaning website.

Another hit with kids are smoothies. Your children can help you to design, make and then drink them. You can encourage your children to drink one smoothie each day and have fun drinking them in tall glasses and with curly straws.

Dr. Sears (of Attachment Parenting fame) talks about the importance of a 'grazing plate' for young children. This is a plate of healthy snacks left out for your children throughout the day, at a level they can reach on their own. Children often have so much energy that they don't want to sit for long at family meal-times (although these are still important for modelling healthy eating habits to our children). The grazing plate allows for them to come and go as they please. You could include food such as: avocado chunks, steamed chicken, carrot sticks, dates etc.

My own children (aged 15 months and 3 years) love dipping. Any food that they can dip into a sauce (such as pesto or tomato puree) tends to be a hit. This is helpful for vegetable fingers.